354 RENEWAL OF THE CONVENTION OF 1818. [1827. 



countries ; and the British were equally resolved not to agree to a 

 renewal of the engagement for a fixed period of time, without such 

 a declaration. 



Finally, on the 6th of August, 1827, a convention was signed by 

 the plenipotentiaries, to the effect, that the provisions of the third 

 article of the convention of October 20th, 1818, — rendering all 

 the territories claimed by Great Britain or by the United States, 

 west of the Rocky Mountains, free and open to the citizens or 

 subjects of both nations for ten years, — should be further extended 

 for an indefinite period ; either party being, however, at liberty to 

 annul and abrogate the agreement, on giving a year's notice of its 

 intention to the other.* This convention was submitted to the 

 Senate of the United States in the following winter, and, having 

 been approved by that body, it was immediately ratified. 



In relating the circumstances connected with the adoption of the 

 convention of October, 1818, the opinion was expressed, that it was 

 perhaps the most wise, as well as most just, arrangement which 

 could then have been made ; and this renewal of the arrangement 

 for an indefinite period, leaving each of the parties at liberty to 

 abrogate it, after a reasonable notice to the other, appears to merit 

 the same commendation. No unworthy concession was made, 

 no loss of dignity or right was sustained, on either side ; and to 

 break the amicable and mutually profitable relations, then subsisting 

 between the two countries, on a question of mere title to the pos- 

 session of territories from which neither could derive any immediate 

 benefit of consequence, would have been impolitic and unrighteous. 

 The advantages of the convention were, in 1827, as in 1818, nearly 

 equal to both nations ; but the difference was, on the whole, in 

 favor of the United States. The British might, indeed, derive more 

 profit from the fur trade as carried on by their organized Hudson's 

 Bay Company, than the Americans could expect to obtain by the 

 individual efforts of their citizens ; but the value of that trade is 

 much less than is generally supposed : no settlements could be 

 formed in the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, by which it 

 could acquire a population, while the arrangement subsisted ; and 

 the facilities for occupying the territory at a future period, when its 

 occupation by the United States should become expedient, would 

 undoubtedly have increased in a far greater ratio on their part than 

 on that of Great Britain. For the difficulties which must arise 



* Proofs and Illustrations, letter I, No. 6. 



